From Judex Okoro, Calabar
 Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State has presented N276bn budget estimate for 2022 to the State House of Assembly.
The estimate tagged, “budget of Conjugated Agglutination” has N106bn as recurrent expenditure while N170bn is earmarked for capital expenditure.
Presenting the budget, Ayade said his government was not going to embark on any new project, but will rather concentrate on ensuring that all the projects which he had already embarked on were completed.
Ayade said: “The 2022 budget tries to marry reality, certainty, aspiration and hope.  It is a budget that will ensure that all the projects embarked upon are completed.”
The governor, while appealing to the Assembly to expedite action on the bill, said between N30m and N50m as special fund to pay both pension and gratuities of retired workers.
According to the governor, many of the projects being undertaken would be completed within the next twelve months while those already completed would be commissioned soon.
The governor however, regretted that his administration has been misunderstood on all fronts, explaining that his intention has always been “to decouple the state from the civil service” and embark on projects that have the capacity to generate employment.